Matt Shaw snubbed as 3 Cubs teammates cash in thanks to a forgotten CBA perk

Shoutout to Brett over at Bleacher Nation for catching the recent AP report on this year's pre-arbitration bonus pool list. He, as usual, did a great job hitting the major points: Pete Crow-Armstrong ($1.2 million), Cade Horton ($858 K) and Michael Busch ($483K) all received end-of-season bonuses for their efforts this year as pre-arbitration-eligible players.

Here's some more explanation on how the dollar amounts are calculated from the AP report:

The allocation of the 2025 Major League Baseball pre-arbitration bonus pool, as determined by the collective bargaining agreement. An eligible player gets $2.5 million for winning a MVP or Cy Young Award, $1.75 million for second in the voting, $1.5 million for third, $1 million for fourth, fifth or all-MLB first team, $750,000 for Rookie of the Year, $500,000 for second in Rookie of the Year voting or all-MLB second team. A player is eligible to receive a bonus for only one award per year, for the highest amount eligible for. The remaining money is allocated by a WAR formula:

So, that's why Horton, who was worth less than half the bWAR of Busch, pocketed such a large sum - he netted a $500K bonus for his runner-up finish in NL Rookie of the Year voting. Meanwhile, PCA picked up an extra half-million for his All-MLB Second Team selection, pushing his total north of the $1 million mark. Regardless, all three players' bonuses outpaced their actual salary this year, which is pretty wild.

But what I wanted to focus on was the exclusion of Matt Shaw, who, at least at first glance, looks like a snub - and that snub comes with the loss of several hundred thousand dollars.

Matt Shaw snubbed out of a major payday after a strong rookie season

Shaw rode the ups and downs of the big-league grind this year as a rookie, taking to his new position at the hot corner with unrivaled enthusiasm and skill en route to being named a Gold Glove finalist. The bat left something to be desired, especially in terms of consistency, but he finished the campaign with a 98 OPS+ and 3.1 bWAR in just 126 games.

Looking at some of the names at the bottom of the list, it's clear Shaw has a real gripe here. Matt McClain of the Cincinnati Reds was a 0.0 bWAR player in 510 ABs - and got $206K. Jared Triolo of the Pirates? 2.3 bWAR and an 86 OPS+, en route to $216K. His teammate Oneil Cruz? 0.3 bWAR in 135 games - good for $221K.

That's just a sampling of some of the less deserving names near the bottom of the list. It's a tough break for Shaw given how he stepped up for the Cubs this year, but there's little to be done about it now.